Sonoco plant wins award for reaching landfill-free status

“We began our journey to landfill free in January 2012 and achieved our goal in December,” said Jeffery Green, plant manager, in a news release. “We’ve remained landfill free in 2013 and are excited to receive a gold-level sustainability award.”

The Gold Star award came from Sonoco Recycling LLC, a unit of the Hartsville-based company. Created to recognize customer and Sonoco facilities for achieving milestones in landfill diversion and waste reduction, the program is composed of three tiers:

Silver Star, which is awarded to facilities achieving 95 percent landfill diversion; and

Bronze Awards, which recognize facilities that have made significant waste reduction achievements.

Sonoco has a goal of having 10 percent of its plants landfill free by 2015.

In early 2012, the Hanover plant was paying rental fees on seven trailers for material storage of cardboard and plastic. Now the plant recycles over half of that material, using the remainder as a waste-to-energy source. Anything leftover is reused or sold.

The project eliminated rental fees for storage trailers and provided the plant with a revenue stream from recycling.